24 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAXi COMMISSION. 



The insect was again destroyed by a storm, as we have seen happen less extensively 

 several times since ; the wind and rain beating them down, and the water sweeping 

 them along and forming immense heaps in some places. 



In 1826 the destruction is said by Dr. Capers to have been again uni- 

 versal, although other testimony to this fact is lacking. In limited 

 localities the worms were noted in 1828, '29, '30, '31, '32, '33, '34, '35, 

 and '36. Considerable . damage was occasionally done, but it was by 

 no means general again until 1838, the worms that year spreading 

 over nearly the whole belt and doing especial damage in Florida and 

 Southern Georgia. 



In 1834 the worms appeared for the first time in Texas, and in 1840 in 

 Arkansas. This last year was one of quite general injury to the crop, 

 northern Florida suffering particularly. In 1841 Florida again suffered, 

 as also in 1843. In 1844 the marked feature was the severe damage in 

 central and southern Louisiana. In this State there was a shortage of 

 nearly 50 per cent, of the crop on account of the damage done by the 

 caterpillars. In Mississippi and Alabama some little damage was done 

 the same year ; but in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina the loss 

 was almost nominal. 



In 1845 the damage was again considerable in Louisiana, and the 

 other States suffered as well, the total loss from caterpillars being 

 greater than in any other year since 1838. 



1846, however, overshadowed, perhaps, all previous cotton-worm 

 years. The caterpillars appeared in force much earlier than they had 

 ever been seen before, and from Texas to South Carolina hardly a plan- 

 tation escaped without loss. In South Carolina old inhabitants say that 

 the ruin of the crop was complete. In Florida more than half the total 

 crop was lost. In Alabama the loss was nearly as great. In Mississippi 

 and Louisiana on a general average one- third of the crop was destroyed. 

 Writing to the American Agriculturist September 9, 1846, from Wash- 

 ington, Miss., Mr. Thos. Afideck gives the following graphic account of 

 the situation : 



The Caterpillar, Cotton Worm, Cotton Moth {Noctua xylina), or chenille of the 

 French West Indies, Gniana, &c., has ntterly blighted the hopes of the cotton-planter 

 for the present year, and produced most anxious fears for the future. I have heard 

 from the greater part of the cotton-growing region — the news is all alike — the worm 

 hA8 destroyed the crop. I have no idea that any considerable portion of any State 

 will escape. * * * The present year the crop is unusually backward, at least four 

 weeks later than usual. We have but just commenced picking; usually *beginning 

 •bout the last week in July or the first week in August. At this moment every field 

 within this region of country, say south of Vicksburg, is stripped of everything but 

 the stems, the larger branches, and a few of the first bolls, already too hard for the 

 worms' power of mastication. The full-grown bolls not yet become hard are com- 

 pletely eaten out, a circumstance I have never heard of but once before, in 1825. The 

 fields present a most melancholy appearance ; looking from thebluiF at Natchez across 

 the river to those fine plantations back of Vidalia, nothing is to be seen but the brown 

 withered skeleton of the plant. 



